Jan. 28, 2005

Acting Publisher Luis A. Gómez weighs in today on a statement just
released by Peru's drug control agency, the National Commission for
Development and Life Without Drugs (shortened in Spanish to DEVIDA).
The document supports, although timidly, the industrialization of the
coca leaf in Peru, a long-sought goal by many in that country as a way
to both legitimize this ancient, sacred plant, and to boost the
Peruvian economy.

snipped

The DEVIDA statement contains another bombshell: confirmation that the
Coca Cola Company, despite repeated denials, does in fact buy coca
leaves from both Peru and Bolivia. While small farmers, and even local
Peruvian companies trying to incorporate coca leaves into drinks and
other products, face constant state harassment and repression, one of
the biggest corporations in the world is buying tons of coca, using it
in their drinks and lying about it to the world – getting ever-richer
off the sacred plant of the Andes, while the people who grow and
maintain it suffer for their labor.

Gómez writes, of the DEVIDA document:

"The good part comes in that same point #5. The end of the paragraph
reads: 'Coca Cola, the globally recognized soft drink manufacturer,
buys 115 tonnes of coca leaf from Peru and 105 tonnes from Bolivia per
year, with which it produces, without alkaloids, 500 million bottles of
soda per day.' You read correctly, kind readers, Coca Cola buys coca
leaves. We have said so ourselves in past reports, and the Peruvian
government says the same thing now. And so now we are sure that the
'spark of life' ('La Chispa de la Vida' is Coke's Spanish-language
slogan) has coca – in at least 500 million bottles a day. And that
process that Nils Ericsson has told us about helped the company earn
13.3 billion dollars in net profit last year, according to their own
financial reports.

Prohibition Kills!

Kathryn Johnston

November 21, 2006—GA

Acting on a tip from a confidential informant, police conduct a no-knock raid on the home of 88 year old Kathryn Johnston.

Johnston, described by neighbors as feeble and afraid to open her door at night, opens fire on officers as they burst into her home. Three of the officers are wounded before Johnston is shot and killed.

Relatives say that Johnston lived alone, and legally owned a gun because she was fearful of intruders. She lived in the home for 17 years. Police claim that they find a small amount of marijuana in Johnston's home, but none of the cocaine, computers, money, or equipment described in the affidavit that was used to obtain a warrant.